Crime fund supporters to try again after override fails

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- After the General Assembly last week failed to override Gov. Bob Holden's veto of legislation that would have meant new funding for local law enforcement, supporters plan to draft a revised bill they hope will address the governor's concerns.

State Rep. Rob Mayer, R-Dexter, said Holden's chief legal counsel has already suggested some potential changes.

"We'll talk with the governor's office and see if there is a way we can come up with some kind of agreement and finally put this into law," said Mayer, the bill's House sponsor.

The bill would have allowed county commissions to establish "crime reduction funds" financed by fees of up to $250 paid by defendants who receive suspended sentences and probation in criminal cases. The money would have been earmarked for various law enforcement initiatives.

Holden vetoed the bill in July, saying it violated the state constitutional provision that dedicates proceeds from criminal fines for education.

Short by one vote

The Republican-led Senate voted 22-10 on Thursday in favor of overriding the veto, but fell one vote short of the needed two-thirds majority. Because the Senate effort failed, the House of Representatives was unable to take up the matter.

Although the Senate originally passed the bill last fall on a 29-1 vote, the override attempt broke largely along party lines with just two Democrats joining the chamber's 20 Republicans. Interestingly, one of those Democrats -- state Sen. Harold Caskey of Butler -- cast the lone dissenting vote on the bill last spring.

While Mayer said Holden's staff offered some technical changes to the bill for next year, those suggestions so far haven't addressed the alleged constitutional problems.

"Of course, it has been our contention all along that there aren't any constitutional issues," Mayer said.

Jim Vermeersch, director of the Missouri Sheriff's Association, said Holden's staff offered the changes in an attempt to dissuade the group from mobilizing support for an override. Vermeersch said the group is willing to accept the proposed revisions, which he called minor, in order to win the governor's support.

During the override attempt, state Sen. Doyle Childers, R-Reeds Spring, conceded the crime fund provision could have problems but urged his colleagues to vote for it anyway to save numerous other components of the bill, which related to county governance.

However, Senate Minority Floor Leader Ken Jacob, D-Columbia, said that if lawmakers allowed a faulty bill to become law, there would be no incentive for supporters, who would have had the funding they sought, to address the problems.

"If we pass this, it is unlikely we would fix it later," Jacob said.

Southeast Missouri lawmakers, with substantial lobbying support from area sheriffs, have pushed versions of the bill for five years.

Many counties had such funds until 1998, when a state judicial commission told judges it would be unethical for them to order defendants to pay into the funds since the counties lacked any constitutional or statutory authority to create them. Since that time, bills establishing that authority have cleared the legislature three times without becoming law. In addition to Holden's veto this year, Gov. Mel Carnahan vetoed a similar bill in 1999, saying it created the appearance that defendants could buy leniency.

The measure has been changed to make payments optional and requiring judges to offer alternative terms of probation to defendants who are unable or unwilling to pay the fees.

Passage in 2001 was nullified after the two chambers inadvertently passed slightly different bills.

The bill is SB 199.

mpowers@semissourian.com

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